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<h1>Preface</h1>
<p>Laszlo applications are written in the LZX language and compiled to .swf files that execute in the Flash player. This 
Guide explains how to make those applications available to users on the Web. The <a href="../guide">Software Developer's
Guide to Laszlo Applications</a> explains how to construct and test applications before you deploy them for general use.</p>

<h2>Audience and rationale for this book</h2>

<p>This book is written for system administrators and others who are responsible for putting Laszlo applications on the web.
</p>



<p>
As explained in the Architecture chapter, there are two distinct ways to deploy applications:</p>
<ul>
	<li>Using the Laszlo Presentation Server, or LPS, to serve .swf files and <i>proxy</i>, that is, mediate the connection, between the client browser and any back-end services on the web.
In this model you make available files having an .lzx or .lzo extension, which LPS compiles to swf as necessary.</li>
	<li>As .swf files, <i>Unproxied</i>. In this model the developer simply precomiles LZX files, and deployment is trivial.</li>
</ul>
<p>
This <i>Guide</i> is virtually all concerned with proxied deployment. If you're deploying your Laszlo application as .swf 
files you probably will not need to consult this manual.</p>



<h2>Typographic Conventions</h2>
<p>Code is displayed thus: <code>var a = f(2)</code>.  Longer sections of code and other verbatim information is displayed in a separate paragraph:</p>

<pre>
An example file
that spans several
lines
</pre>

<p>Example programs are shown thus:</p>
<example executable="false">&lt;canvas height="20"&gt;
  &lt;text&gt;Hello World!&lt;/text&gt;
&lt;/canvas&gt;</example>

<p>Some example programs are run within the page.  The running
application is shown first, followed by the application source code,
followed by an Edit button that allows you to try out the effect of
making changes to the application source code.</p>
<example>&lt;canvas height="20"&gt;
  &lt;text&gt;Hello World!&lt;/text&gt;
&lt;/canvas&gt;</example>

<todo>Material marked thus is only shown in the beta distributions of
the documentation, and must be eliminated before the product is
final.</todo>

<fixme>Material in <d:sgmltag>fixme</d:sgmltag> is only shown
internally, and should not be present in beta or final
distributions.</fixme>

<h2>Related documentation</h2>

  <!--preface>
    <title>Preface</title>
    <para>Please check the <ulink
    url="http://www.laszlosystems.com/developers/">Developer Zone</ulink>
    of the Laszlo web site for updates and forthcoming chapters.  Also see
    the <ulink url="../lzx-reference/">LZX Reference</ulink> for
    comprehensive API documentation for individual tags, classes, and
    references.</para>
  </preface-->
  

<p>In addition to this <em>Administrator's Guide</em>, please see also</p>
<ul>
  <li>The <a href="../guide"><em>Software Developer's Guide to Laszlo Applications</em></a>, the comprehensive 
explanation of how to write and test Laszlo programs.</li>
  <li>The <a href="../design"><em>User Interface Designer's Guide to Laszlo Applications</em></a>, 
which addresses aspects
of the Laszlo platform that are of special interest to UI and graphic designers</li>
  
<li>The <a href="${reference}"><em>LZX Reference
  Manual</em></a>. This online, hyperlinked, comprehensive reference
  for LZX contains entries for each LZX tag and API. Its format will
  be familiar to users of JavaDoc(tm) and similar systems. </li>
  
  
  <li>The <a href="${tutorials}">online tutorials</a> and sample
  applications at <a
  href="http://www.laszlosystems.com/demos">http://www.laszlosystems.com/demos</a>
  provide a hands-on instructional overview of the LZX language.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Use the Forums</h3>

<p>The best way to learn any programming language is to draw upon the
experience and goodwill of its development community (and to write
code! as the saying goes, nobody learned to ride a bicycle by reading
about it). The LZX developer community has a home at <a href="http://www.laszlosystems.com/developers/forums/">http://www.laszlosystems.com/developers/forums/</a>. There
you will find an active discussion of all aspects of the language, and
a place to ask questions of your own.</p>

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